Have a Safe & Healthy Turkey Day

Are you worried that your turkey will come out too dry? Or maybe your biggest Thanksgiving concern is that Aunt Diane will say the wrong thing to your self-conscious 4-year-old.

But since there are hot ovens and knives involved in our annual eating festival, the American Red Cross reminds us to keep holiday safety and health issues in mind. They give the following tips on avoiding Thanksgiving disasters.

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Get this: Cooking fires are more likely to occur on Thanksgiving Day than on any other day of the year according to the National Fire Protection Association. In fact, each year more than 4,000 fires occur on this holiday.

So here are some reminders that you already know. Just be careful not to get in a hurry around dinnertime and forget.

Monitor your cooking at all times. Unattended cooking is the leading cause of Thanksgiving Day home fires.

Keep potholders and food wrappers at least three feet away from heat sources while cooking.

Wear tighter fitting clothing with shorter sleeves when cooking.

Make sure all stoves, ovens and ranges have been turned off when you leave the kitchen.

Set timers to keep track of turkeys and other food items that require extended cooking times.

Turn handles of pots and pans on the stove inward to avoid accidents and reaching little hands.

After guests leave, designate a responsible adult to walk around the home, making sure that all candles and smoking materials are extinguished.

Finally, it’s important for every household to make sure to have working smoke alarms. According to Melanie Hazim of American Red Cross ofMontclair-Glen Ridge-Nutley in New Jersey, 37 percent of people disabled a smoke alarm when it went off unexpectedly. Many forget to put it back on.

Other worries are burns and choking. To read up on tips for dealing with either one, check out The American Red Cross website.

Here are some CafeMon's Thanksgiving disasters from Cafe Kim's Food & Party page. Yikes. Have you had any scary things happen on Thanksgiving? One year, I singed a wad of my hair!